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Do you ever wonder why certain songs (or even just parts of songs) have the power to excite you, to move you emotionally, etc? What about certain chord changes or sequences?

As an example, I just listened to Marnie Stern's 'Transparency Is The New Mystery' for the first time (cheers, Yesiamaduck) and felt that swell of feeling at the chorus. Then it was almost dampened by the realisation that... I ALWAYS enjoy that particular chord sequence. I don't quite possess the musical knowledge to describe it, but you could form it with powerchords as thus (key is irrelevant):

D--4---6---7--
A--4---7---7--
E--2---4---5--

In the example of the Marnie Stern I think it's something closer to this:

G--6---8---9--
D--7---9---9--
A--4---6---0--
E-------------

Anyway, tabs aren't the point. Do you know what I'm getting at? Even in a song I might otherwise think of as crap, there could be a particular chord (or chord change) that gets that kind of reaction. Other examples off the top of my head that share the aforementioned chord sequence:

Nantes by Beirut
What I'm Trying To Say by Stars (middle eight/end)

Aaaand my mind's gone blank. Anyway, without delving too deeply into tedious muso wankery, have you noticed certain elements or progressions in music that you find yourself constantly enamoured with? Do you think it ruins the effect to over-analyse it?

And the fact that all measures (?) are in threes or multiples of three. (e.g. "Ride the Tiger (down)/ River Euphrates / Ride the Tiger" on the chorus to River Euphrates, though I could list a boatload of other songs). Makes it sound quirky and interesting without sounding strange, and it gets me everytime.

Evolutionary rewards, that are meant to be for reproducing, or hunting, or what have you, being misplaced. Probably some connection with the importance of communication to humans. Same reason you look at a pretty sun set, and you go aww, pretty, except that's the visual connection.

So, I like really noisey, bassy, deep stuff, cos it bypasses the self aware part of my brain and goes straight to the stem. I like music that communicates to the more animalistic part of me.

I'd be very interested reading some actual science dudes study on this topic.

Also, I remember reading that sounds that we would consider happy or sad, don't necessarily resonate the same way with people outside our culture, so there's lots to think about there in how our appreciation of music/sound is influenced (hampered?) by our cultural upbringing. It'd be interesting to find out how people from across the world feel about various types of music, but even in one region of the world there's such a multitude of opinions on it, it'd be a bit pointless, I guess.

even more even more so if they're played with one sine or triangle analogue oscillator synced to a slightly detuned pulse wave oscillator with a small amount of PWM and an enveloped sine wave LFO at 16thTriplet of the BPM on either one of the oscillators

When I hear major chords go to their diminished relatives, and then probably to some sort of minor 7th. Yeah, pretty much in general I do adore diminished and 7th chords, yeah.

I also tend to enjoy songs which have high pitched bits too, or background repetitive beeping or ticking noises. But it doesn't have to ALL be like that, like some sort of dancey tune or something, although I do like dance music. But you know what I mean.

But imma sure as hell have a go at a rambling post about that which I don't fully understand...

I'm pretty much an ignoramus when it comes to music creation beyond stringing a few basic chords together on the guitar. But the idea that certain 'surefire' structures can TAP INTO YOUR MIND is pretty interesting. Knowing about certain minor or major notes creating particular moods is as far as I go to understanding it.

As per the first feedback email responding to ^that page, I also remember hearing something about it on BBC Radio 1 circa '95. The one song in particular that I remember being given as an example of the 'format' was Whatever by Oasis. But that isn't mentioned on ^that page.

Not that I'm massively 'affected' by that song - it's obviously very derivative - but it has a pretty strong melody. And it's descending chord thing is such an obvious structure that, as the guy who wrote ^that webpage says, I'm suprised that "i didn't find any mention of DESH on the WWW" when I did a quick search to check up on whether. I doubt Noeley G consciously stole the format, but he did get sued by Niel Innes for ripping off the song How Sweet To Be An Idiot. Innes was in the Rutles, so on second thoughts, he probably did rip it. Seems a bit harsh, though, when the DESH thing apparently stretches back to Bach's Air on a G string.

Here are some other supposedly DESH songs:
Super Furry Animals - Something 4 the Weekend
Pachabel - Canon
Procol Harum - A Whiter Shade of Pale
Percy Sledge - When a Man Loves a Woman
David Bowie - Changes
Future Sound of London - Lifeforms
Manowar - Courage
Mott the Hoople - All the Young Dudes
Blur - End of the Century
(As a playlist: http://open.spotify.com/user/thewza/playlist/7FCeoZ4IlNUrJuqj2LmnzJ )

Listening through 'em, I can kinda see the common thread, but I'm not sure my ear is keen/trained enough to tell if it's properly 'A Thing'.